Two medical insurers have changed or added to their products this month. NIB the insurer who took over Tower Medical last year and the largest medical insurer in the New Zealand market, Southern Cross.

So what have they done?

If you are familiar with Tower Medical they had Premier Health and Easy Health in their product range. NIB have added Basic, Mid, Ultimate and Ultimate Max policy options to their mix. Making it both more flexible in building the medical insurance products for you but also making it more complex to understand the nuances of the different policies, which is where we as advisers come in.

NIB have taken a building block approach, with the Ultimate policies being the better coverage. You can take a base plan and add things like specialists and diagnostic tests, optical, dental, GP's and proactive health covers. All come with their own premiums so it will pay to really compare apples with apples.

The big change is NIB have introduced coverage for non-Pharmac funded medications on it's Ultimate Max policy, something the previous Premier Health product didn't cover.

On the Southern Cross side, they have introduced Health essentials. This looks to be targeted at the primary care end of the market, your GP's, Dental, Optometry and other non-invasive treatment providers at the coal face. Not so much a major medical or surgical policy but a day to day medical expenses policy. With 75% reimbursement it will have an audience.

What else is going on?

On the wider market today we have ten medical insurance companies with 22 current products competing for your premium dollar in the New Zealand Market. This comes with a wide variety of coverage and cover options, making it a complex part of the insurance market for you the consumer. This doesn't include the numerous historical policies which add to this complexity.

Today we now have 4 providers who have coverage for non-Pharmac medications and one provider where their historical policy does also. Things like medical tourism and coverage for treatment in Australia have also started to appear as medical insurance policies evolve.

Why is this important to you? By having and adviser like us involved you can be kept up to date with the change and options for you and your policy to keep it relevant for you. Life and situations do change, keeping your medical cover relevant is an important part of this.

If you want to explore your options or get more information get in touch with us

The information is only intended to be of a general nature and should not be relied upon in any part without obtaining full details of the products and services by contacting Willowgrove Consulting Limited. All product and service details, terms, conditions and other information are subject to change at any time without notice. Terms, conditions and fees apply to the various products and services and are available on request. A disclosure document will be provided to you on request free of charge.